Members of The Highland Council’s Places Committee have agreed that up to £0.5m go towards the 2018/19 round of timber transport projects that will bring benefits to communities and rural roads in Highlands.

The money will come from the Council’s road structural (capital) fund and be used as match funding for the Strategic Timber Transport Fund (STTF) operated by Forestry Commission Scotland.

In June this year it was announced that the Council had been successful in applying for funding from the scheme to improve six rural roads in Highland.

The Forestry Commission Scotland has contacted local authorities and forestry operators asking them to indicate the level of match funding to support STTS bids that they may have available in 2018/19. At this stage it is unclear if the Scottish Government andForestry Commission are going to allocate a sum similar to the £7m made available in 2017/18.

If Highland Council is once again successful in getting funding, the money will be used in 2018/19 for projects to improve rural infrastructure in and reduce the impact of timber haulage on local communities.

Chair of the Places Committee, Councillor Allan Henderson said: “I certainly commend this scheme as last year half a million from the Council resulted in £2m worth of improvement work being carried out in areas where there was not much possibility of getting this work done without having the support of the Scheme.”